Sosakonline Archive

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Following on the heels of last month's article about the Nite Ize eClipse comes a few more carry methods that I make use of on a regular basis.This month I'll be reviewing the Maxpedition knife sheath, the Venture Clip from SOSAK member Jeff Venture, owner of VentureTech Sheaths and looking in on the long term use and abuse of my trusty old Pock-Its XL sheath which has been on my duty belt through more than a few bar brawls.

For many of you, this is going to come as old news, but the 2010 SOSAK Knives Of The Year are already in most people's grubby little hands, and the results seem to be quite favorable. As of this writing, I have just gotten mine, so I haven't had much of a chance to fiddle with them or take better photos, so hopefully these will do for now!

Last month we looked a little bit at the Old Ranger series from Wenger and it's comparison to the New Ranger series, but we didn't get very far beyond the lock mechanism. This month I'd like to take a closer look at some other parts of the Old Rangers.

In 1961, modernization came to the Swiss Armed Forces. The older style Swiss Army knife became a thing of the past. With newer materials and a better design, the model 1961 was introduced by Wenger. This all metal knife was a lot smaller than the older version. Gone were the old brown fibre scales.

The newer aluminum scales became part of the strength of the new design. A knife that is lighter and stronger. These scales were anodized red until 1965. These red scales were to help the soldiers find his knife if it fell into a snow bank. A red handled knife can be very easily spotted from just about any distance. Do you want to guess why most Swiss Army knives have red plastic scales? Tradition plays a huge role in Swiss culture.

Long time readers will note that it’s rare that I dedicate an entire article to a 58mm model.It’s not that 58mm models aren’t important- after all a Victorinox Classic is on permanent display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it’s got more to do with my own fairly slight interest in them.For the most part, few 58mm models have ever really caught my attention unless there was something fancy on the scales like the Canadian Flag Classic or the VSAKCS Membership Classic.

This one may be a bit late for Halloween, but it certainly has the color scheme!This is actually the second knife in the Wilderness series, the first being all black- black tools, black scales and black liners, but there seems to be some problem with the mail that has kept it from arriving before this article was written, so for now we’ll have to make do with pictures of just this one!